Skate 3 Review

Skate 3 is the sequel that Skate 2 should have been. That's not to say that Skate 2 was bad or inferior to Skate, but there are a lot of additions that I'm looking at in this game that feel like they should have made it into the second game, but possibly didn't do to time constraints. All of that aside, the third game in this series worked its way into retailers on May 11th, bringing with it a hosts of improvements and alterations to the tried and true formula. Read on to find out how well the overall package came together.



Gameplay 8/10

With the original game, the skateboarding game genre was forever transformed, as evident by the number of sales against its rival that year, Tony Hawks Proving Grounds. In addition to that, the realistic gameplay, creative control scheme, and size of the open world was met with tons of critical acclaim and cemented the namesake into the hearts of gamers everywhere. The sequel improved on this formula by setting the game in the same city after a major disaster occurs, which alters the landscape a bit, giving you tons of new areas to skate, pros to meet, and an even more in depth replay and photo editor. This, coupled with more open areas of online freeskate, not to mention the addition of walking, made this sequel more than deserving as its title of successor.
Now, here we are with Skate 3, which in every way feels like the game Skate 2 would have developed into had there been more time between releases. Major changes to the game include the fact that now every single player challenge can be played online in co-op, meaning any thing you're having issues with is made a lot more tolerable by possibly bringing someone else in that is better than you or functions better than your new AI teammates. While Skate 2 had the option to drag items around and set up your own unique spots, Skate 3 allows you to use an object dropper anywhere in the world, not to mention an extensive park editor that allows for in depth customization of every single rail, ledge, ramp, or even elevation change on your own park, which can be shared with other people online (provided you buy the game new!). The fact that the entire game is entire co-op has its weaknesses, primarily coming from the team challenges that feel like its necessary for someone else to be doing with you instead of relying on the AI provided, which might be a deal-breaker for some.

Graphics - 8/10

For the first time, the game is running at a steady 60 FPS throughout the entire city. While the graphical style looks similar to Skate 2's, the fact that everything is consistent the whole way through makes a huge change in how fluid the game moves. The camera work this time around gives you a much more clean view of the world, since the series ditched that dirty looking filter and fisheye effect from the previous games, but if you desire to have them back, you can turn them on in the options, at the sake of reducing the framerate. Another huge change in the graphics is the fact that now, if you fail at doing a trick, instead of going into an automatic bail animation, there's a possibility that your skater will stumble and attempt to regain balance, which looks exactly like you'd expect it to if you've ever been the victim of this or witnessed in real life. Not only does it serve to immerse you in the sim like experience, but it helps from a gameplay perspective, as this makes it a lot easier to recover your momentum than faceplanting into the cement.



Sound - 8/10

While the previous games offered samples of other genres, it feels like Skate 3's soundtrack offers more of whatever it is that you're looking for. I can't name another game off the top of my head that can take you from Young Jeezy to Neil Diamond, then back over to The Pixies or Joy Division all within the course of 10 minutes. If there's anything in the soundtrack you don't want to hear, you can go into the menu and disable it. The PS3 version implements custom soundtracks right off the disk, meaning you don't have to wait for a patch to skate to that Rod Stewart cd you've secretly hoarded on your hard drive. For anyone that had been annoyed with the cameraman in the previous games, he's gone now and replaced with a new guy that rarely ever says anything unless you come across a really awesome spot, have an incredibly harsh bail, or pull off an insane trick. The score only gets an 8 here mostly because the sound effects from the actual skateboard just don't sound as satisfying as they did in earlier games. Maybe it's just me, but everything sounds a lot more muted now.



Overall - 8/10

While I can easily say Skate 3 is a much more refined game than Skate 2 was, it's a bit harder to recommend if you're not able to play online, and you should also be aware that if you buy it used, it disables your ability to share parks, logos, and pictures online. If you've never played a Skate game in your life before, however, the addition of difficulties, variety of landscapes, and refinements to the overall gameplay mechanics makes this easily a welcome starting area, probably even more than the first two games! The last thing I feel needs to be mentioned is that as of May 28th, 2010, it's been increasingly hard to find games online, especially considering a lot of players are probably on one of the other games that's come out this month. I'm hoping the community returns maybe during the post-E3 pre-fall down time, but I'm no psychic and this makes it a lot harder to get the full enjoyment out of the game due to the increased attention to online play.